1st g.i. visit yesterday - cindy

[Guest guest]

Hi,

As far as your medicine - breaking them in half and shortening

the time between doses....yes I have heard of this and all it does

is to try to even out the blood concentration of the meds so you

don't have big peaks and valleys go through your system. It

could lessen the unwanted effects of the meds by not having that

surge.....and it allows you to get the same dosage into your

system. The bad side - effects of the loopiness, etc can go away

after a few days or a week of taking the medication. Another

thing to consider down the road is a slow release version of your

drug that you take just once or twice a day and it slowly releases

the right concentration over the 24 hours that it is in your system.

This too is suppose to reduce the unwanted side effects of the

medication and is suppose to increase the pain relief effect by

reducing those swings in blood concentrations.

As far as the calcifications - I think I have heard of it - and if that is

true I am wildly guessing that it may be due to the fact that

calcification of the tissue means that this is " inactive " tissue and

if it is inactive it cannot secrete enzymes (amylase and lipase) so

there is less risk of acute pancreatitis because even if this tissue

is damaged or irritated by the ERCP they cannot produce those

enzymes that cause acute pancreatitis. But I am speculating

here and I could be way off the mark..........

So it is a good-news, bad-news combination. Not what you want

to hear as far as having non-functioning tissue, but nice to know

that this tissue may not be releasing digestive enzymes that can

cause acute pancreaititis (not that this tissue isn't a source of

pain though....to head off those that want to question that AP

without elevated enzyme relationship).

Hope this helps a little......

laurie

[Guest guest]

goutbuster wrote:

thanks for the input.since i am new to this,i still don't understand alot of

stuff so i greatly appreciate when one of you guys write back with

answers.well,the g.i. dr. called me back this afternoon and said i have a

pseudocyst(4 cm.) on the head of my pancreas and some calcifacation and

enlargement of the pancreas.because of the pseudocyst being on the head,could

this be the cause of my back pain?the last pseudocyst i had was on the tail and

i never had upper back pain then.maybe thats also why i feel like theres a brick

in my stomach everytime i lay down.just wondering......have a good day

everyone..Cindy

[Guest guest]

Hi, I had a pseudocyst on the tail of my pancreas and calcification

also. I had a distal-pancreatectomy. I had 55% of the tail towards the

head removed. I'm down to about 5% of my pancreas working and also

insulin dependent diabetic. When I get an attack, the pain shoots to

the front and back. You said your cyst was on the head, I don't know

if this helps..Jim